The Dark
Dvergr man had decided to sleep and save his energy for his time on The Dark. So he awoke with a start to Seri's report, "We are now 80,000 miles from The Dark" At first he didn't know what she was talking about, but it then he remembered, The Dark, I'm crash landing on The Dark! He could see the evil planet now. It didn't look very menacing at first glance, just a big, whitish-grey ball floating in space. But when he realized what lay under the clouds, whenever it spun into veiw, it looked more like a featureless skull in the tar, an ominous reminder of what was to come. "70,000 miles" Seri stated. The next fifteen minutes were spent in silence as he listened to Seri count down the miles until she switched to feet. Flames started to lick at the mangled ship's hull, "Seri, tell me when the control surfaces will work" already the ship started to slow its spinning, the air resistance was pinning it in place. A few seconds later, the ship's rapid rotation had stopped altogether and was pointed straight into the flames. Then the flames died down, "Control surfaces operational." Seri's calm voice stated. He was now crossing the threshold of day and night, he was still above the clouds but descending rapidly. It all grew dark exept the flickering lights of the cockpit. now he could only rely on his instruments to fly the ship, which behaved more like a glider now. "Well, it feels good to have control over my ship" Dvergr Man was trying to sound optimistic, but inside he was dreading the landing. "There are Ruins of an outpost eighteen miles ahead, I would suggest landing there" Seri said. Though the ship was out of fuel, it was still traveling very fast from the descent. "This planet definately lives up to it's name... I might as well be blind-" Dvergr Man's last statement was cut off when the landing gear failed to activate and the the ship slammed and grated into the ground, the already flickering lights in the cockpit finally gave out and shut off. When he got the courage, he flicked on his rifle's flashlight and the beam shone on a tattered peice of cloth hanging limply from a long pole, it had thirteen stripes and a square with fifty eight stars in it. This must be the nation's flag. Dvergr man thought to himself. Then he opened the cockpit and climbed out. He looked around to try and find a doorway, and found two steel doors on one of the walls. On them they had the words: STAY OUT, RIPPERS INSIDE. The doors had a large, twisted, bar locking them shut. Dvergr Man couldntt tell whether the words meant "Ripper's inside" or "Rippers are inside", he hoped for the first one. On the other hand, why would whoever wrote this warn me about a single thing called 'Ripper', I should be careful either way. ''After that last thought, a strange howling groan came from behind him, so he decided to take his chances with the Rippers or Ripper rather than find out what abominations were lurking outside. Then he took off the bar and walked inside, making sure he bolted the door behind him. He shown his light around the hallway, looking for any signs of whatever Rippers were. He found none, whatever these were, they didn't appear to leave traces. ''Probably to keep their prey unsuspecting. Dvergr man started walking slowly and quietly down the inky black hallway until he turned the corner, and smelled rotting flesh and blood. He looked at the walls and the floor. There was blood, so much blood and gore. He could make out bones amid the remnants of whoever this used to be. No use sticking around here. He thought to himself, but something about the way the gore was splattered seemed off to him. Then it struck him, the gore was smeared into three letters: LOL. He would have laughed if the letters were written in anything other than human gore. Instead it scared him even more. Dvergr Man walked past the letters and found another door, clink. He whipped around and raised his gun. Nothing was there, but the letters on the ground now spelled: DIE. No monsters came rushing out of the dark, no growls or strange animal noises. Just another clink ''farther away. ''Ripper is definately inside... It was clear now that only one creature was lurking in the darkness. There was now two options, wait for the Ripper, whatever it was, or continue further into the complex and try to find some kind of comms. I'm afraid no matter what I do, this thing will follow me. He walked down the hallway until a stairwell appeared in his light. It went both up and down. Seri decided to pipe up in his earpiece just then,"If there is a comms array, it will be at the top of this building. Also, there's movement behind you." He turned around and fired 5 blasts into the darkness. Each one lit up the hallway for a brief second, and at the end, lit up by his energy blasts, he saw something terrible.